Occupations · Sales
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products
Sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers where technical or scientific knowledge is required in such areas as biology, engineering, chemistry, and electronics, normally obtained from at least 2 years of postsecondary education.
O*NET 30.3 Database (USDOL/ETA) · occupation code 41-4011.00
What it pays
A single “average salary” hides the spread. This is the whole distribution — the gap between the bottom and top bar is usually the number that matters.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 · national, cross-industry · annual wage
These are national figures, identical for every reader. The report recuts them for your metro area and ranks it among all of them.
Get yours →Pay over time
Median up 75% between 2003 and 2024, before inflation. The band shows the 10th to 90th percentile.
BLS OEWS, one release per year. Before May 2011 only national estimates were published, so geography detail starts there.
Where the jobs are
| Metro area | Median wage | Employed |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $83,740 | 17,730 |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | $92,520 | 9,720 |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | $79,790 | 9,490 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | $85,400 | 8,210 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $134,030 | 8,130 |
BLS OEWS May 2024, metropolitan estimates · the 5 areas with the most people in this occupation
Your metro area, and where it ranks
LockedAll metropolitan areas BLS publishes for this occupation, with your own city's median and its rank among them.
Open in your report →Typical education to enter: Bachelor's degree · BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
What people in this job actually do
Ordered by how important the work is rated.
- Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
- Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
- Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales.
- Sell service contracts for technical or scientific products.
- Maintain customer records, using automated systems.
- Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms.
- Quote prices, credit terms, or other bid specifications.
- Contact new or existing customers to discuss how specific products or services can meet their needs.
- Emphasize product features, based on analyses of customers' needs and on technical knowledge of product capabilities and limitations.
- Compute customer's installation or production costs and estimate savings from new services, products, or equipment.
- Demonstrate the operation or use of technical or scientific products.
- Provide feedback to product design teams so that products can be tailored to clients' needs.
O*NET 30.3 task ratings, importance scale
Skills that matter most
Importance, rated 1 to 5.
O*NET 30.3 skills, importance scale
Software and tools
A dot marks what O*NET flags as in demand.
O*NET 30.3 software skills · hot-technology flag
What your tools are worth
Occupation-based, not posting-based: how much employment, pay and projected growth sit behind each tool. It is not a count of job ads.
| Tool | Value | Spread across occupations |
|---|---|---|
| R | 85 | 46 → 102 occupations since 2015 |
| Apache Hadoop | 82 | 21 → 41 occupations since 2015 |
| SAS | 81 | 79 → 119 occupations since 2015 |
What your tools are worth
LockedThe same score for every tool in this occupation, plus the ones you ticked and the ones you did not.
Open in your report →What this work is actually like
Conditions rated against the average across all occupations — only what makes this job different is listed.
O*NET 30.3 Job Zones
Working conditions that stand out
O*NET 30.3 work context, frequency scale · observed 2014-07
How people actually get in
Share of workers by the education they hold.
O*NET 30.2 education, training and experience · observed 2014-07
What kind of person the work suits
Occupational interest profile, rated 1 to 7.
O*NET 30.2 occupational interests (RIASEC)
What you take with you
Skills rated for how well they transfer into other occupations.
O*NET 30.3 transferable skills, importance scale
Knowledge the work draws on
Abilities it leans on
O*NET 30.3 abilities and knowledge, importance scale
How this job is advertised
The same work is posted under many titles — this is what to search for.
O*NET 30.3 job titles reported for this occupation
Get this as a personal report
The same sourced evidence, recut for the closest published view of your city, state or industry, as a dated PDF.
Free page vs. the $29 report
The page above is a public national reference, identical for every reader — and we deliberately give away a lot of it. The report does three things this page cannot: it answers the question you type in your own words, using only figures that appear in the report with their sources; it ranks your city among all 445 metros instead of the twelve shown here; and it places your level on the employer pay ladder. Choose $49 for the wider comparison of industries, places and next moves, $99 to add named employers and the international purchasing-power index.
What changed since 2015
Comparing O*NET release 20.1 (2015-10-01) with 30.3 (2026-05-01). Signs, not colour alone, carry the meaning. 4 entries that were only relabelled between releases are left out.
Now listed 39
No longer listed 15
Diff across the O*NET releases held here in full since October 2015, following occupations through merges and retirements. O*NET re-surveys occupations on a rolling cycle, so “no change” can also mean “not re-surveyed”.
Related jobs
O*NET 30.3 related occupations
Also called
O*NET 30.3 alternative titles
The same work in Europe
| ESCO occupation | ISCO | Match |
|---|---|---|
| technical sales representative | 2433.6 | exact |
| commercial sales representative | 3322.1 | close |
| technical sales representative in chemical products | 2433.6.2 | broader |
| technical sales representative in machinery and industrial equipment | 2433.6.4 | broader |
| technical sales representative in hardware, plumbing and heating equipment | 2433.6.3 | broader |
| technical sales representative in office machinery and equipment | 2433.6.6 | broader |
| technical sales representative in electronic and telecommunications equipment | 2434.4 | broader |
| technical sales representative in the textile machinery industry | 2433.6.7 | broader |
| technical sales representative in mining and construction machinery | 2433.6.5 | broader |
| technical sales representative in agricultural machinery and equipment | 2433.6.1 | broader |
| client relations manager | 2431.6 | broader |
| ICT account manager | 2434.1 | broader |
| medical sales representative | 2433.2 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in agricultural machinery and equipment | 3324.4.1 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in chemical products | 3324.4.4 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in electrical household appliances | 3324.4.10 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in electronic and telecommunications equipment and parts | 3324.4.11 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in hardware, plumbing and heating equipment and supplies | 3324.4.16 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in machinery, industrial equipment, ships and aircraft | 3324.4.20 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in metals and metal ores | 3324.4.23 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in mining, construction and civil engineering machinery | 3324.4.24 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in pharmaceutical goods | 3324.4.28 | broader |
| wholesale merchant in textile industry machinery | 3324.4.30 | broader |
Official ESCO ↔ O*NET crosswalk (ESCO Secretariat with USDOL/ETA)
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